ChoiceAir and Delta Sky Miles?

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Hi everyone! There may be a really obvious answer to the question but I have not been able to locate it yet!

 

Is it possible to use your Delta Sky Miles with ChoiceAir?

 

I am new to ChoiceAir and very confused.

 

I have seen excellent rates with ChoiceAir, am I able to "pay" for my ChoiceAir ticket with Delta Sky Miles?

[Clarea]

Hi everyone! There may be a really obvious answer to the question but I have not been able to locate it yet!

 

Is it possible to use your Delta Sky Miles with ChoiceAir?

 

I am new to ChoiceAir and very confused.

 

I have seen excellent rates with ChoiceAir, am I able to "pay" for my ChoiceAir ticket with Delta Sky Miles?

No, ChoiceAir does not take miles for payment.

[slidergirl]

Choice Air is nothing more than a cruiseline contracting out to get your airfare, really just like trying to use Exped*a or *rbitz, Trav*locity - you can't use your SkyMiles there, either.

Try booking with those SkyMiles first on Delta (good luck on that one :rolleyes:). Then, shell out and pay if you must.

[frugaltravel]

Try booking with those SkyMiles first on Delta (good luck on that one :rolleyes:).

 

I love people who knock SkyMiles or "give up" trying to find reasonably-priced awards with them. The issue almost always is not knowing how to do one own's homework. Delta's miles are tough to use because you can't rely on their website for accurate info and pricing and you really can't rely on their phone agents either. So you need to do your own legwork using other websites or even delta.com (but in ways one would normally never think of). I have booked dozens of tickets using Delta miles the past year and all have been low level.

[PennyAgain]

There is no advantage what so ever to using Choice Air when booking with Delta Sky Miles.

 

Go ahead and book with Delta and get it done.

[Ms Understood]

or even delta.com (but in ways one would normally never think of). I have booked dozens of tickets using Delta miles the past year and all have been low level.

 

Care to share what other websites and/or how do you use Delta. com

in unexpected ways? I am Platinum, have many thousands of Delta miles and access to another many thousands of Amex points but I rarely find biz class tix to where I want to go at the low mileage level. I do usually find an award ticket but have a very good understanding of the term "sky pesos". :rolleyes:

----------------------\

Helen

[slidergirl]

I love people who knock SkyMiles or "give up" trying to find reasonably-priced awards with them. The issue almost always is not knowing how to do one own's homework. Delta's miles are tough to use because you can't rely on their website for accurate info and pricing and you really can't rely on their phone agents either. So you need to do your own legwork using other websites or even delta.com (but in ways one would normally never think of). I have booked dozens of tickets using Delta miles the past year and all have been low level.

 

I've booked my flights with SkyMiles over the years also, most at low levels. But, it is NOT as easy as it used to be. The website is horribly broken for award travel. Trust me, I DO know how to do my homework! I use ExpertFlyer to search out the appropriate buckets. I look on AF and KLM websites first to see if they are offering classic level seats. But, many times, DL's own site blocks availability to the partner flights, leaving us to try to wrangle an all-low set of flights. If you can start your flight at a major DL hub, your chances of getting a low availability is better than if you have to start somewhere else. If you know you will have connections, you have to search using the multi-city function to be sure that you can pick each low segment. If you go the round-trip method, if ONE of those segments they put you on is a Medium or High, the ENTIRE trip will be priced out at Medium or High. For certain trips, you may have to call in and go up the supervisorial ladder to find someone who will do a "long sell" of the flight from a partner. When it was easy to book a SkyMiles flight over the phone (no more - they will say they can only do 3 searches for you, and it's all DL metal...), I would use ITA/ExpertFlyer to find exactly what I wanted and give the specifics to the agents - many times they would say they never knew that my routing pairs were available - really!

 

For neophytes trying to use SkyMiles for a "cheap" flight, it is definitely not easy. I'm happy you have been lucky enough to always find your low award flights without much hassle. From what I've read on some frequent flyer boards, you may be a lucky exception. And, I have not given up. I just don't enjoy playing their game as much as I used to. My last flights, home-JFK-FCO-CDG-home, were in May and it took a combination of coach (with bought up EC), BE, and a 23 hour layover at CDG to get what I needed. There was no BE available on the way over at low rate for any segment. If I had the luxury of moving days by a week I could have had it, but that was not an option ...

[frugaltravel]

Care to share what other websites and/or how do you use Delta. com

in unexpected ways? I am Platinum, have many thousands of Delta miles and access to another many thousands of Amex points but I rarely find biz class tix to where I want to go at the low mileage level. I do usually find an award ticket but have a very good understanding of the term "sky pesos". :rolleyes:

----------------------\

Helen

 

slidergirl gave some good points above. Flexibility is the key. If you have dates that are locked in, that is a huge minus right off the bat. The guy who apparently coined the term "sky pesos" started out with a negative view of SkyMiles and from his blog posts doesn't appear to have nearly as much experience using SkyMiles as miles from other airlines.

 

Using "multi city" function on delta.com, expertflyer, kvs, other airline websites, being flexible, etc. are all options. Making use of the stopover and open jaw rules on SkyMiles tickets is huge. One has to also remember that SkyMiles are some of the easiest miles to accrue, so if it costs 50% more to redeem miles that you earn 50% easier than other miles, you at least break even.

 

slidergirl, I don't think I am the lucky exception. It takes a lot of work. But someone with platinum or diamond status has a huge advantage with free changes to award tickets. Even without such status, it is far from impossible to get a good value from Skymiles. I have NEVER found someone who b!tches about the low value of SkyMiles who is willing to give/trade/barter them in any way. Goes to show you that they really are more valuable than they lead others to believe - it is more a show of frustration.

[buggins0402]

I've booked my flights with SkyMiles over the years also, most at low levels. But, it is NOT as easy as it used to be. The website is horribly broken for award travel. Trust me, I DO know how to do my homework! I use ExpertFlyer to search out the appropriate buckets. I look on AF and KLM websites first to see if they are offering classic level seats. But, many times, DL's own site blocks availability to the partner flights, leaving us to try to wrangle an all-low set of flights. If you can start your flight at a major DL hub, your chances of getting a low availability is better than if you have to start somewhere else. If you know you will have connections, you have to search using the multi-city function to be sure that you can pick each low segment. If you go the round-trip method, if ONE of those segments they put you on is a Medium or High, the ENTIRE trip will be priced out at Medium or High. For certain trips, you may have to call in and go up the supervisorial ladder to find someone who will do a "long sell" of the flight from a partner. When it was easy to book a SkyMiles flight over the phone (no more - they will say they can only do 3 searches for you, and it's all DL metal...), I would use ITA/ExpertFlyer to find exactly what I wanted and give the specifics to the agents - many times they would say they never knew that my routing pairs were available - really!

 

For neophytes trying to use SkyMiles for a "cheap" flight, it is definitely not easy. I'm happy you have been lucky enough to always find your low award flights without much hassle. From what I've read on some frequent flyer boards, you may be a lucky exception. And, I have not given up. I just don't enjoy playing their game as much as I used to. My last flights, home-JFK-FCO-CDG-home, were in May and it took a combination of coach (with bought up EC), BE, and a 23 hour layover at CDG to get what I needed. There was no BE available on the way over at low rate for any segment. If I had the luxury of moving days by a week I could have had it, but that was not an option ...

 

Yep - I don't count on using low Delta miles for European cruises. Our desired European cruises are generally longer and since we both work we need almost specific dates. And, we only vacation in May and November when more low miles are available. That said, have had great luck using them for land Europe vacations when building our trip around availability. Seems if you take the approach of "where can the miles take me" during lower demand periods they work well - but for cruises - nada.

 

Since we have an Air Canada trip to Istanbul planned for November we decided to sign up for the Chase United Card - hopefully those miles will be easier to use. Note: DTW is our home airport - so we're usually Delta, KLM or AirFrance.

[slidergirl]

Just in case people were looking to spend some of those SkyMiles for BE tickets next summer... Announced today from Delta:

 

The 100K redemption is gone for low rates (if you could even find a low rate) and replaced by 125K for flights occurring AFTER June 1, 2014. So, even if you book today, you will pay those new rates if your flights are in the summer :mad:

[frugaltravel]

Just in case people were looking to spend some of those SkyMiles for BE tickets next summer... Announced today from Delta:

 

The 100K redemption is gone for low rates (if you could even find a low rate) and replaced by 125K for flights occurring AFTER June 1, 2014. So, even if you book today, you will pay those new rates if your flights are in the summer :mad:

 

Actually you pay those rates for the return trip if you depart by May 31, 2014 but return on/after June 1, 2014. Kind of strange, since DL only sells round trip awards and not one-way awards.

[slidergirl]

Actually you pay those rates for the return trip if you depart by May 31, 2014 but return on/after June 1, 2014. Kind of strange, since DL only sells round trip awards and not one-way awards.

 

If you play the game, you can get coach one way and BE the other way. I did this for my last trip - zero availability in BE to any gateway city, so i did coach and had AMEX buy my EC upgrade (gotta love the plat and it's $200/year credit) and then BE the trip back.

 

DL DOES sell one-way awards; they are just the same price as their round trips ;)

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Thank you everyone for the help!